In Brazil, a few kilometers from one of the most popular beaches among young Latin Americans, a group of twenty-somethings are living away from the discotheques, the surf and sand. Instead, they enjoy... Show More + good incomes, manage their own businesses and avoid the stresses of big city life.They were born on these lands and – unlike their parents, for whom the countryside was an unfortunate fate – these young people have found their true vocation in agriculture. What is even better, they have the opportunity to develop a long-term professional future although the workload is intense."Everything is more relaxed, starting with the clothes we wear,” says 25-year-old Jilson Vargas. He used to work in an office, but it involved a half-hour trip down a dirt road each way. “And I had to wear a suit and tie!” he exclaims.But Jilson’s life changed completely when the rural youth group he belongs to was finally able to buy the machinery needed to produce rattan. Rattan is used to make baskets and fu Show Less -

The torrential rain that caused flooding and landslides across Bosnia and Herzegovina last May displaced 90,000 people, affected more than 1 million and cost the economy about 15 percent of gross... Show More + domestic product (GDP) in lost output and damage. In Northern India and Pakistan, flooding in September brought nearly $18 billion in losses and marked the fifth consecutive year Pakistan suffered a billion-dollar flood. Natural disasters of this magnitude and worse occur almost every year around the world, disproportionately hitting developing countries with an economic force that can roll back their development gains and exacerbate inequality. Without efforts to build resilience, such disasters can make development investments unsustainable.“Resilience and development are inextricably linked. When we invest in infrastructure, we have to invest not just for today but for the future, and that means building resilience into everything we do,” said Rachel Kyte, World Bank Group vi Show Less -

If you’re with your family, you’re with your family “I’m often irritable at home because my work is exhausting.” “My family complains that I don’t pay enough attention to them because I’m always working.”... Show More + “I make sure that my partner/children/family does not feel neglected, even when I have a lot of work.”These are some of the responses to a survey of the Hacé el click hoy campaign launched by the Argentine Advertising Council. The campaign seeks to raise awareness on striking a balance between work and personal life and on the importance of family ties.“It’s paradoxical because you work for the well-being of your loved ones, but they see our worst side because we are tired from working,” says Debeljuh, who provided advice for the campaign. “Balancing work and personal life is as much an ethical question as it is a question of productivity,” says Rigolini. “Certain conditions permit adapting to workers’ needs and improving their performance and commitment.”Thus, together with Show Less -

Climate change. These are increasingly common words in Latin America, where the population suffered the devastating effects of climate change in 2014. It is also posing a serious threat in 2015.It is no... Show More + exaggeration that the signs are there and cannot be ignored. In recent years, Latin America has been recording more intense and frequent storms, longer drought periods and the disappearance of majestic Andean glaciers.All of this is a consequence of an increasingly warm world, which has a direct impact on agriculture and fishing, and therefore threatens the capacity to produce food for the more than 7 billion people inhabiting the planet.According to the most recent Turn Down the Heat report, Latin America is responsible for just 12.5% of greenhouse gas emissions – the main culprit in global warming – but will be one of the most affected regions if the global temperature rises 4 degrees centigrade, which is forecast for 2100.Experts warn that if nothing changes, the young people of toda Show Less -

It appears that this year, Latin America will no longer grow at the same pace as it did over the last decade. However, it will be the year when citizens will demand better services to boost their quality... Show More + of life.Clearly, one of the region’s most pressing problems is public insecurity. With only 10% of the world’s population, Latin America accounts for 30% of all homicides. This, together with other crimes, has grave consequences for individuals, but also for the region’s economies and development.“Strategies for studying violence, to understand it and the methods for trying to evaluate it and explain what works and what doesn’t, are very similar to those used to understand other epidemics,” said epidemiologist Andrés Villaveces in this interview. Dr. Villaveces forms part of a team working to create a regional platform for exchanging knowledge and ideas on how to address the problem.Some of these ideas are being put into practice, not only by governments and international org Show Less -

US$25 Million Loan as Additional Financing for Public Financial Management Modernization ProgramWASHINGTON, December 9, 2014 – The World Bank (WB) Board of Executive Directors approved a US$25 million... Show More + loan today as additional financing for a project aimed at modernizing public financial management in Nicaragua, making the public acquisition and auditing systems more efficient and improving accountability mechanismsThe “Public Financial Management Modernization Program in Nicaragua” project, originally approved in December 2010, increased the number of government agencies using results-based methodologies in the preparation of multi-annual budgets by 23 percent, while managing to have 50 percent of public acquisitions published online via the Nicaragua Compra webpage (www.nicaraguacompra.gob.ni). The goal is to publish 90 percent of public acquisitions online“Through this additional financing, we will be able to expand implementation coverage, guarantee an alternative online database as Show Less -

IDA Credit: US $25.0 million equivalentTerms: Maturity = 40 years, Grace = 10 yearsProject ID: P150743Project Description: The objective of the project is to enhance the efficiency, performance orientation... Show More + and transparency of Nicaragua’s public expenditures. Show Less -

Local communities in Peru are helping make decisions that impact the country's forests—including the Amazon, which covers over half of the country, but is being cleared for subsistence farming... Show More + and industrial agriculture, as well as due to illegal logging. With support from the Forest Carbon Partnership Facility (FCPF) and the Forest Investment Program (FIP), Peru's Ministry of Environment, along with agencies such as the Ministry of Agriculture, is preparing a program to keep the natural forest standing and to reduce carbon emissions. Local communities are also being engaged in Peru’s REDD+ readiness programs. To date, over one thousand people have been reached through workshops, roundtables, and direct coordination on REDD+.Going even further than meaningful participation is the joint preparation of the Saweto Dedicated Grant Mechanism for Indigenous Peoples and Local Communities in Peru. The Bank is supporting Indigenous leaders to design the Saweto DGM that will be go Show Less -

Development agencies, international financial institutions can play a vital roleWASHINGTON, December 3, 2014—Violence against women and girls poses a major obstacle to ending poverty, but development agencies... Show More + and international financial institutions are uniquely positioned to tackle this global epidemic, according to a new resource guide released Wednesday.“Violence against women and girls is an outrage,” World Bank Group President Jim Yong Kim said. “It demands urgent attention as a violation of fundamental human rights. Along with terrible individual suffering, it also imposes steep, avoidable economic costs on families, communities, and economies—helping keep some of the world’s most vulnerable people in poverty.”Such violence is widely recognized as hindering social and economic development as well as achievement of internationally agreed targets such as the anti-poverty Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), according to the guide—published by the World Bank Group, the Global Women’ Show Less -